Free Web NovelChapter 6: Head first
Leo and the other four fell head first into the hole, wind blasting all over their hair scattering it to all sides like they hadn’t combed it hours ago.
Jennifer screamed the whole way down, regretting the fact that she jumped into the hole in the first place.
The others tried to calm her down, but everything they said passed through her mind without effect as fear crowded her whole judgement.
Jake on the other hand didn’t seem that bothered with the whole experience.
As they kept falling Leo concentrated his eyes on the thicker darkness below. The temperature of the environment began to change too, the more they went down the colder it became, the chill crawling under their skin. At some point whenever he exhaled, the air froze into mist like he was in some ice world.
Suddenly something appeared in their view. It looked like a large mirror stretched around the surface of the hole, reflecting the images of the descending five.
For a second Leo thought they were going to die. That the driver had lied to them. freewebnσvel.cѳm
But even if that was the case, they were moving too fast for him to change anything about it, so he just closed his eyes and pulled both arms to his face like a person in a fight trying to block or at least reduce the damage of the impact.
"Everybody brace for impact!" Ken shouted at the others as they got even closer to it.
Smash!!!
They finally broke through the mirror, shattering the glass into pieces. But unlike what you would expect real glass to do, the pieces never cut through their bodies. Instead the broken shards changed into a swarm of energy that in a millisecond covered their bodies and turned reality upside down without them even noticing what was happening.
One second they were in darkness and the next they found themselves standing inside a large dungeon.
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"Bwaaa!!"
Jennifer vomited repeatedly, the fluids dripping onto the ground spreading a terrible smell all over the area.
She stood at the far side of the dungeon while Sabrina held back her hair and tapped her back gently to help ease it all out.
The whole jumping experience was so hectic for Jennifer that she couldn’t even stop herself from vomiting for minutes nonstop.
Leo and Jake stood on the other side of the dungeon acting like they weren’t watching the whole scene happening in front of them.
The dungeon looked underground, so large that you could fit a two story building inside it. In random places on the walls were bright green crystals giving off a subtle light through the tunnels.
Further inside the dungeon, two other tunnels branched into darkness.
Earlier when a decision came to discover where they led, Ken volunteered himself and went into the first one.
"So, how does it feel to be a NULL?" Jake started the conversation, trying to pass the time on their end.
"It’s a very unsettling thought that if I don’t awaken they will strip away everything and I will just turn into a useless person."
"You will awaken. Believe in yourself. Because the officials won’t believe in you."
A frown formed on Leo’s forehead at how drastically the conversation had changed.
"What do you mean by that?"
"I don’t mean to sound negative or anything, but didn’t you see how they grouped us? Those in Teams A and B are all people with good abilities while the rest of us have weaker abilities. That’s not a technique an institution uses if it wants everyone to become strong."
Jake enlightened Leo.
Even though it sounded far fetched, the theory really made sense.
In schools teachers usually group intelligent students with weaker ones so they could help each other grow. But instead of doing that, the officials seemed to be doing the opposite.
"There is no doubt that Teams A and B will survive this test, but for the rest of us there is a high chance some people will die. And that’s exactly what they want. By doing so they will only have to use their resources on the stronger people."
Leo’s eyes widened as the words made him realize that this was just like Earth all over again.
Because of his cancer, in many things people always placed him last saying that he wouldn’t do anything important because of his weak body. And now the officials here were underestimating him too.
"She is done guys!"
Sabrina shouted to inform the other two while letting go of Jennifer’s hair as Jennifer wiped her mouth using the back of her arm.
Loud footsteps echoed out of one of the tunnels as Ken finally came back to the others. Sweat covered his face completely as he breathed heavily like his heart was stuck in his throat.
"Guys... you gotta see this."
He rushed forward and the others followed him into the large tunnel.
The walls of the tunnel also had crystal-like structures embedded in them, shining green and bright.
After a few more minutes they finally arrived in another large dungeon.
But unlike the dungeon they had fallen into, this one had more than fifty dog-like creatures scattered around it.
Even from afar Leo could see them clearly. They had large teeth that looked capable of chopping off a person’s leg in one bite. Their legs looked powerful like wolves.
"What the fuck are those things?" Sabrina whispered, failing to make out what kind of creatures they were.
The system screen finally appeared in everyone’s eyes.
[Name:: Hellhounds
Floor: 1
Points::10
Skill :: They have strong teeth and a lot of speed too. Dangerous alone. Very dangerous together.]
"Shit, and there are more than fifty of them. What should we do?"
Leo inquired as his eyes never left the hellhounds.
Jake carefully moved a few steps back into the tunnel they came from as the others followed him as well.
"So this is what we are going to do. How many have already awakened their abilities?"
Sabrina, Jake and Ken slightly raised their hands into the air, leaving Leo and Jennifer standing still like outsiders.
’They awakened their abilities already. They must have done it at night... these guys may not be as bad as I thought.’
Leo pondered.
"If my memory from the ceremony serves me right, Ken is a defender while Sabrina is an attacker . So we are going to bait a few hellhounds into the tunnel and kill them to test if our teamwork is functional ."
Jake seemed to have taken control of the group with his intelligence.
"But to do that we need bait." Ken pointed it out.
Jake slowly turned his head toward Leo, looking at him like a sheep ready for sacrifice.
"Yeah... that’s where Leo comes in."
